Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or "hamburger disease" is a growing problem in the United States. It causes severe stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea and is often fatal in children and the elderly. The disease is caused by a bacteria designated as Escherichia coli 0157:H7. Major outbreaks can develop before health authorities have a chance to intervene because symptoms do not appear until two to seven days after eating contaminated food and many people infected with the E. coli 0157:H7 initially interpret the symptoms as flu and wait for it to pass. In children this delay often results in a progression into late stage infection, which then develops into HUS in about 20% of such cases. About two percent of those contracting HUS die. A well-publicized incident in 1993 involving one particular restaurant in Kings County, WA resulted in well over 400 adults and children becoming infected after eating beef. Two of the children died, several became very ill and one lapsed into a coma. The disease is not confined to undercooked meat and poultry products. A 1991 outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 in the Fall River, Mass. area caused about 23 people to become severely ill after drinking fresh pressed apple cider but no deaths occurred. Direct infection of tissue can also occur in flesh wounds.
At the present time the U.S. population experiences about 20,000 foodborn cases of E. coil 0157:H7 infection each year and that number is growing. The E. coli 0157:H7 is an especially virulent bacteria. An individual needs only to be infected with a few of the bacteria to suffer food poisoning symptoms because they can grow in the intestine, eventually causing ulcers in the intestinal lining. The bacteria also produce toxins, related to the highly poisonous Shiga toxin, which then enter the blood stream through the intestinal ulcers. The bacterial toxins travel to the kidneys, are trapped there and damage the kidneys, causing HUS. People with HUS have no kidney function and must undergo dialysis for the remainder of their lives or have a kidney transplant.
A number of different antibiotic compounds are known which can eliminate bacterial contamination in food, can disinfect pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, and cure systemic or topical bacterial infections in animals and plants. However, since a low infectious dose is sufficient to cause illness from highly virulent bacteria, merely sterilizing an item once does not make it completely safe because food and other items can easily become recontaminated sometime after the initial sterilization treatment. Chlorine dioxide has recently been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a dip for killing E. coli and Salmonella on beef. However, its anti-bacterial activity disappears after a short time due to chemical reactions between chlorine dioxide and the organic compounds in the beef so it cannot offer long-term protection against recontamination. The present invention offers a way to kill highly virulent bacteria and to protect the treated item from future bacterial contamination. It also provides systemic and topical treatments for bacterial infection.